It was somewhere around the middle of the first track on Beefus’ latest, Busted Teeth Fandango, that I began to question my own sanity.
Titled “Thunder-Thighs, Missile-Tits,” the song is sophomoric, scatological and so stupid that it might be brilliant. And for my money, I think that’s the greatest compliment I could give to Beefus. It takes talent to pull off juvenile humor — and as someone raised on a steady diet of Jackass, South Park and Blink-182, I consider myself something of an expert in this category. With Busted Teeth Fandango, Beefus makes high art out of the lowbrow.
The Madison collective has never quite settled into one genre (though “Zappa-esque” isn’t too far off; the band won the 2017 MAMA for Best Rock Album). But Busted Teeth Fandango finds them pushing the limits of their sound even further. On instrumentation alone, it’s one of the better alternative country albums to come out in the last year. But each song has its own personality, from the happy-go-lucky toilet humor of “The Brown Bomber” to the Tom Waits-ian howl of “Sunshine Without the Shadow,” which also features a pretty killer talkbox guitar solo.
Granted, Busted Teeth Fandango is not for the squeamish. Beefus’ lyrics are intended to shock. And while the goofiness can be fun, the relentless grossness could wear thin. Squeamish listeners might want to avoid the bestial “Lorena the Sheep” or “Cheap Smokes,” which opens with Grandma shitting on the courthouse lawn.
Busted Teeth Fandango is the type of album that makes you wonder if your brain is dissolving. It’s like having Pop Rocks and cheap bourbon poured into your ears while an Ozark jug band mainlines crystal meth across the room. But that shouldn’t take away from the fact that Beefus is a bizarre entity, one that needs to be experienced to be understood. And Busted Teeth Fandango is a fine place to start.
